Remove Special Characters

[jjenright]

I would like to remove all special characters from a text field. Special characters include an X, ., -. For example,

X123456
987.654
99-8888

Usually, the X will be in the first position. I would like to remove all . (dots) and - (dashes) and have the remaining text displayed, 123456, 987654, 998888. Can I remove all of these characters at one time ? Thabks for your help!

 

[lbass]

I think you could just use:

numbervar i;
numbervar j := len({table.string});
stringvar newstr;

for i := 1 to j do(
if isnumeric({table.string}) then
newstr := newstr + {table.string};
newstr;

This assumes that you only want numbers in the resulting field.

-LB

 

[dgillz]

Ken Hamady has a UFL to remove all punctuation from a string:

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"making predictions is tough, especially about the future" - Yogi Berra

 

[synapsevampire]

If it's just those characters, you can also use a basic replace function:

replace(replace(replace({table.field},"X",""),"-",""),".","")

I'd avoid the UFL if possible.

LB's solution looks great if you only want the numerics output, and your software version supports it.

Please remember to post the basics in the future.

-k